Cellular communications networks have become nearly ubiquitous in many areas of the world; the number of areas they do not yet reach is ever-dwindling. With the advent of digital communications technology, the number of devices that could reliably use the service provided by these networks rose immeasurably, and as more and more people have begun using such devices, demand for reliable Wireless Wide Area Networks for digital communication has grown by leaps and bounds.
Connection to these networks is simple, enabled by a small set of connection parameters and a communications device equipped with an appropriately-configured transceiver, just as with local wireless networks. A host machine, such as a laptop computer, personal digital assistant, or other mobile device, sends the connection parameters to the device, which transmits data based on those instructions.
Storing all such parameters on the host machine and passing them to the communications device at connection time is common practice in most communications networks. In some networks such as WWANs, however, such practice is less favorable. Since the range of a WWAN is wider than these similar networks, there are more devices connecting to it and therefore more opportunity for problems to arise and a higher probability that they will. The network operators, then, require greater control over the devices that connect to their network to ensure maximum reliability and security.